


Pitch Black Halo

by rozberries



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Camping, Fictional Religion & Theology, Gen, Legendary Pokemon, Original Character-centric, Pokemon Journey, Sentient Pokemon, i promise all the characters will show up eventually, or at least marshadow is
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28995732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rozberries/pseuds/rozberries
Summary: A series of one shots about my Ghost-type trainer Zilpha.
Relationships: Juppeta | Banette & Original Character(s), Marshadow & Original Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

Zilpha's first Pokemon was a perfect little Abra, hatched from her parents' proud pair of Alakazam. He was very small when he was born, so small that his head was no bigger then ten year old Zilpha's hand. She looked at him intently, reaching out and stroking the side of his head. Even though he had just been hatched, he was very, very fast, and he teleported away before she could pull her hand away.

"Oh, dear," her mother said, looking around the room quickly to see if the Abra had just teleported away from Zilpha or out of the room entirely. It had left, and her Alakazam was gone the next moment in search of her child, leaving Zilpha and her parents standing there awkwardly with the nursery worker watching them. Zilpha's lip wobbled, and she began to cry.

"It doesn't like me!" she wailed, and her mother knelt down and hugged her, giving Zilpha's father a panicked glance. He looked just as lost as his wife.

"Oh, honey, it was just born. It doesn't even have a concept of liking anyone yet. I'm sure once it gets a little older and gets to know you, it'll love you just as much as Angela loves me."

“But Mommy, I can't be a Trainer if my Pokemon doesn't even like me!”

Angela returned with her child in her arms, and Zilpha quickly wiped her eyes and tried to pet the Abra again. Safe in its mother's arms, it still shied away from the girl's touch, letting out a frightened chirp. Zilpha pulled her hand away, wanting to cry again, but she held the tears back. Her mother picked up the pokeball belonging to the Abra, and went to thank and pay the nursery worker. When she came back, she picked Zilpha up and hugged her again.

“Don't worry, honey. Everything will be okay.”

In a few months, when the Abra was bigger, Zilpha was entrusted with his daily care. She dutifully brought him the freshest berries she could find, changed the blankets in his nest regularly, and gently brushed his fur out whenever she could. He grew to tolerate her, but never treated her with the same affection she did him. As he got older, his fear turned to disdain, and he only sometimes paid attention to her orders. Battling with him was a nightmare; with other trainers he ignored her at the most crucial moments, and he always knocked out any other Pokemon she tried to catch.

Still, Zilpha persevered. A good Trainer wouldn't give up when the going got tough, and neither would she. So she trained Aurum as best she could. Wild Pokemon after wild Pokemon fell to them-even though Aurum didn't like to listen, he still liked to win. He leveled up slowly, eventually, to Zilpha's delight, becoming a Kadabra. Even after evolving, he still fought with gusto against wild Pokemon.

Battling Trainers was another story.

“Aurum, use Psybeam!”

He turned up his nose, looking away from Zilpha and the fight. Zilpha's ears burned as she heard several snickers from the people watching the battle. The opposing battler, a girl named Brittany, shouted an order before Zilpha could plead with Aurum to listen.

“Golbat, use Air Cutter!”

If Aurum had listened, this fight would have been over already. Poison types were weak to Psychic types. But he just had to make it difficult. Zilpha took a deep breath and was about to try again, until she realized Aurum had gone to sleep even after being battered by the Golbat's attack. She swallowed heavily as Brittany hid her giggles behind her hand.

“I forfeit,” Zilpha said through gritted teeth, recalling Aurum and stalking over to Brittany to hand her the required money. She couldn't lose any more battles if she wanted to eat tomorrow, which meant no more battling for the day. There had only been one victory among the four Trainers Zilpha and Aurum had battled, and the kid hadn't given her very much.

Without any more fuss, Zilpha pushed through the crowd up to the nurse's counter and handed over Aurum's pokeball. She waited at the counter and hurried out of the way to a nearby bench once she got Aurum back, sitting down and sighing. Aurum's pokeball remained clasped in her hands even as she let the back of her head thunk against the wall.

“Damn it, Aurum,” she muttered. No matter what she did, it seemed like she was doomed to failure. 

"Did you say you had a Kadabra?"

Zilpha turned around to see a boy her age nervously wringing his hands behind her. He was sweating, eyes bright, and held a great ball in both hands. She was fairly sure he had been watching the battle, so she didn't understand why he was asking about what he obviously would have seen.

"I can help you evolve it, if you like. I have a junk Pokemon I don't mind trading."

Zilpha frowned at him, crossing her arms. "That's not cool, dude. There's no such thing as a junk Pokemon."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Do you want to evolve your Kadabra or not?"

Zilpha hesitated. Having an Alakazam would be amazing, but what if Aurum continued to disobey? Still, she followed the boy over to the machine in the back of the Pokemon center. The machine wasn't being used, so Zilpha and the boy placed their capsules into it, one on each side. The boy pulled the lever, and some blue lights flashed on the machine, then deposited the capsules on the opposite sides of where they had started. Before Zilpha could say a word, the boy grabbed Aurum's pokeball and took off at a run past the line waiting to restore their Pokemon and out the door. 

She couldn't move for a moment, but Zilpha managed to cry out, "Stop him!" But no one moved, too shocked by the audacity of stealing someone's Pokemon in broad daylight surrounded by other people. She grabbed the great ball and shoved it in her backpack when she finally got her legs to move, but when she got outside, the boy had already hopped onto his bike and was pedaling furiously down the road.

Zilpha got on her own bike and went after him, pedaling as fast as she could manage. The buildings swiftly gave way to wooded roads, surrounded with patches of tall grass, but Zilpha kept her eyes on the cloud of dust in the distance. So much, in fact, that she didn't notice the herd of Sawsbuck about to cross the road until she nearly biked into them.

She skidded to a stop and fell to the ground, scraping her knees and elbows while the herd jumped across the road. Zilpha hurried to get her feet despite the pain, but the herd had a few stragglers left, and by the time they were past, the cloud of dust was gone. Zilpha stared in disbelief, falling to her knees. This couldn't have just happened. She couldn't have just lost her first ever Pokemon.

"FUCK YOU!" she screamed down the road, though she knew the boy would never hear her. She burst into tears, bawling her eyes out with her bike still lying in the dirt and her knees still bleeding. Her psychic misery was so loud several wild Pokemon came to investigate, and Zilpha had to bat away an encroaching Pidove. Still crying, she dragged her bike over to the side of the road, sat down hard and buried her face in her dirty hands.

"Maybe he'll like that guy better," she said to herself through her tears. It didn't make her feel any better.

She pushed her bike upright and put the kickstand down, checked it for damage, then set about tending her wounds. Her elbows and knees were bleeding, so she cleaned them out and stuck bandaids on them. She pulled off her backpack and pulled out her hair brush, and her fingers brushed against the great ball the boy had left behind. In her state, she'd almost forgotten about it. Hesitating for a moment, Zilpha took it out and pressed the release.

A small, grayish Pokemon popped out, hissing at the light and darting toward the shadows of the trees. It was small, resembling someone wearing a sheet as a ghost costume with a sharp point on top of its head. Big yellow eyes rimmed in black watched Zilpha with suspicion when she crawled forward, hissing again when she got too close.

"Well, hello, little guy. I guess I'm your trainer now," Zilpha said quietly. "I don't know you, but I promise you'll never be a 'junk Pokemon' to me."

She dug into her backpack, produced a sitrus berry, and offered it to the Shuppet. It hesitated for a moment, then scurried forward, plucking the berry from Zilpha's hand. It proceeded to scarf the berry down, shooting Zilpha wary glances every so often. When it was done, Zilpha reached out with her mind, trying to contact the Shuppet. Like all Pokemon Zilpha had met, its mind was blurry, filled with images and feelings rather then words and logic. This one felt female, and she jumped when Zilpha touched her mind. Zilpha did her best to project goodwill and _no-harm-you_ to the Pokemon.

"How about I call you Selena?" she asked the Shuppet. She looked up at Zilpha, considering, and then nodded, hesitantly nuzzling into the human's hand. Zilpha smiled wetly.

“We're going to make a good team, you and I.”


	2. Chapter 2

She first heard of them in a dusty corner of Castelia City's enormous library, in a worn book older then her parents' home. With Selena idly waving her arms beside her, Zilpha read about the legends of Sinnoh. Arceus, All-Creator, and Their divine touch bringing both Pokemon and humans to life. Palkia, who crafted the stars in the sky, and their twin Dialga, who set them in motion. All compelling legends, to be sure, but there was one more, who was barely a footnote in the story of the world.

Uncreator, Renegade, _Giratina;_ they were called by many names. Banished for their violence, gazing silently upon creation from a prison where they remained to this day. Said act of violence was never described, only mentioned, and like the doubting child she was, Zilpha wondered what the other side of the story would be. She felt for Giratina, locked away from the world in eternal loneliness. And what historian would think simply naming someone as evil would make them so? They didn't know what had truly transpired, before humanity even existed. No, the whole story reeked of lies to Zilpha.

There were whispers among the other trainers she came across. Most called for Arceus to protect them, just like most people in general. There were others that prayed to Rayquaza, or Xerneas, or even Ho-Oh or Lugia. But there were a few, a scattered few, that belonged to a different god. The god of outcasts, of broken things, of lost souls. The god of abandoned children, something Zilpha knew she couldn't claim but felt connected to regardless. The divine other. The Lord of the Distortion World.

“Do you really want to know?”

The other trainer was a white-haired boy with a Sneasel who leaned against his back, away from the campfire he and Zilpha shared. Selena was sleeping in Zilpha's lap, the rest of her team in their pokeballs for the night. It was a warm summer night, and all the stars were out, the moon shining down on them with gentle light. 

“Yeah, I do,” Zilpha answered. The boy smiled. He hadn't told her his name, just that he was from a place called Floaroma Town, and that he had a fondness for Ice types.

“The Uncreator has no temples. Not many people openly worship them. But if you find a reflective surface, you can try praying to them. They watch our world through those sorts of things. Still water works best, because you can drop an offering into it, but mirrors are all right.”

“It's that easy?” Zilpha asked, brow wrinkling. “I thought there would be more...stuff involved. Like incense, or specific prayers.”

“Giratina doesn't need pomp for their children to speak to them,” the boy said. “That's more the realm of their Creator.”

“...Huh. I thought all gods liked that sort of thing.”

“Giratina isn't your typical god.”

Their conversation drifted in different directions, and after they ate and cleaned up the boy recalled his Sneasel, retreated to his tent, and didn't come out again. Zilpha remained at the firepit's side for a while, eventually recalling Selena to sleep and setting her ball aside. Eventually, she got up and walked over to the lake's edge, crouching down in the sand.

In the lake, the silvery moon shone bright. Zilpha looked into it; it looked still enough to work. She cleared her throat, and spoke.

“Um, hello? Giratina?”

There was no answer. Zilpha shifted, then continued speaking. “I read about you. You got a pretty bad deal in everything. I guess I wanted to say I'm sorry, and that I kind of understand. My parents...they don't want me anymore, either.”

A single ripple passed over the surface of the lake.

“It-it was pretty awful. See, my first Pokemon was stolen from me, and he was the kid of their two partners. They blamed me, thought I didn't do enough to save him. And sometimes, I can't help but wonder if that's true. I chased after him. I filed reports. But...he never liked me anyway. He kind of hated me, as best I can guess. And deep down I thought maybe he'd be happier with another trainer, even if that trainer stole him. So I didn't pursue as hard as I could have.”

Zilpha sniffled, producing a tissue from her pocket and wiping her eyes.

“Plus, something good came out of it. The trainer traded me Selena, my Banette. And I love her so much, Giratina. She loves me too, I think. It was so nice to have a Pokemon that actually liked me, and I felt much more connected to her then I did to Aurum-my Kadabra who got stolen. Well, I guess he'd be an Alakazam now.”

“I wonder if I'm a bad person, for doing what I did. I feel a lot happier now-I think I was born to train Ghost-types. But my parents were right-I did abandon Aurum. I didn't search for him hard enough. Am I a bad person, for letting him go?”

Again, there was no answer. Zilpha sighed and rubbed her temples. “I don't even know why I'm doing this. It's not like you're going to answer me, if I even deserve it. No god has ever bothered to show up before.”

The lake rippled again, and Zilpha felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She quickly looked over her shoulder, but there was no wild Pokemon behind her, or indeed anywhere near her. The lakeside was as calm and quiet as it had been before, but she couldn't shake the sensation of being watched.

A warm breeze blew over her, and she stiffened; it carried a strange smell, not unpleasant, but...different. It was almost like the smell of a cave, but less damp, and with a hint of dry, desiccated plants. It was like nothing Zilpha had ever smelled before. She turned to look over her shoulder again.

“Hello?” she called. Nothing replied, and Zilpha shivered. _That's enough prayer for tonight,_ she told herself, and got to her feet. She walked back over to her tent and stopped halfway there. Where she had sat before, at a dimly glowing banked fire, was now pitch black and cold. It had still been burning when she had walked over to the lake.

Zilpha swallowed, then forced herself to speak again. “Was that you?” she asked. And then that same smell again, on another warm breeze, neither from the direction the wind had been blowing before. She should have been afraid, but something in her was strangely comforted-after all, a put out fire was hardly a malevolent thing. And she had wanted some kind of sign.

Years passed. Zilpha grew stronger, as did her Pokemon, and she met new ones along the way. When she was sixteen, she found herself in Sinnoh, driven by curiosity to see her god's homeland. And while at a fair in Veilstone City, she found a booth selling religious charms. Most were of Arceus, but in the far back she saw one that gleamed red and gold, and felt a shiver through her whole body.

It was serpentine, mostly gray, and seemingly devouring its own tail. Gold gleamed at its crown and down its neck, and red and black enamel climbed up its belly. The seller looked at her strangely when she asked for it, but Zilpha ignored her and happily forked over the money. She immediately hung it around her neck, and when it touched her skin, she felt a flash of warmth. It lasted only for an instant, but the warmth was comforting, so Zilpha smiled and strolled over to a picnic bench to eat some of the berries she had bought.

And there was a familiar face sitting there.

It was the boy, with his hand on his Weavile's head. Like her, he was older and taller, but his features were mostly the same. He glanced at her, and his eyes widened. Smiling, he beckoned Zilpha closer, and she came forward, hoisting her bag of berries up over her shoulder. When she got close enough that the boy could see her charm, his smile grew wider.

“So you spoke, and received an answer,” he stated. Zilpha nodded. He stepped forward, motioning for his Weavile to stay, and shook her hand; he wore a matching charm around his own neck. They sat to talk, and as they did, a faint shimmer could be seen in the air high above them. A pair of red eyes shone out from the tear in spacetime, filled with a quiet joy at the sight of their children.


End file.
